Summer Blues
by Dana1
Summary: Summer vacation can be a relaxing time as long as Zedd doesn't interfere. Second in the Starfire Dilemma series
1. Never Boring

Title: Summer Blues

Rating: PG

Warnings: Mild violence. It's Power Rangers after all

Summary: Summer vacation can be a relaxing time as long as Zedd doesn't interfere.

Time frame: Starts out a couple weeks after Destiny's Child series wise. Canon wise: Between Song of Guitardo and Green No More.

Author's note: This is the second fic in my Starfire Dilemma series. This series actually has other fics in it that will include another new Ranger (next fic in the series) and even dab into Jungle Fury with the last fic in the series.

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone you recognize from TV. They all belong to Haim Saban.

* * *

Ellie Jacobson stood staring at the mirror. She smoothed her skirt down and looked again. She just wasn't sure about this. She had a date tomorrow night with Jason Scott and she wanted to look nice. Her new friends Trini Kwan and Kimberly Hart had volunteered to go with her shopping.

There was a knock on the dressing room door.

"Ellie?" Kimberly asked, "let me see."

Ellie opened the dressing room door and stepped out.

"I like it," Kim said with a big grin on her face. "Trini come see," she called to the Yellow Ranger who was standing off to the side. Trini came over and to look.

"It looks good," she said nodding her approval.

"Do you really think so?" Ellie asked as she pulled down on the shirt once more.

"Jason's going to love it," Kim said with a wink.

"But it's so…" she wasn't sure how to end that sentence. She was more of a jeans and a t-shirt kind of girl even when she lived in Palm Springs. She remembered how her parents would try to get her to dress up but she said no. Now she was living in Angel Grove with her two sisters and she had to get used to a lot of things.

She sighed. "Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yes!" Kimberly said enthusiastically. "If it wasn't orange I'd buy it." She gently pushed Ellie back into the dressing room.

Ellie laughed as she changed back into her real clothes. She gave the outfit one more glance and sighed. Things in Angel Grove were finally starting to feel normal. Well as normal as they could be if you are a Power Ranger.

As if on cue, her communicator started to beep.

Ellie opened the door and looked at Trini and Kim in confusion. "What do you do when you are shopping?"

Kim grabbed the outfits and went up to one of the cashiers. "Can you hold this for us?" She asked. "My friend has to talk it over with her sister before she buys the outfit."

"But Corinne will totally say yes," Ellie said joining in on the lie. "I'll come back tomorrow."

"I guess so," the saleswoman said as she took the outfit. "Your name?"

"Ellie Jacobson."

She wrote it down and put it behind the desk.

"I'll be back tomorrow!" Ellie said before she hurried after Trini and Kim. No off time for Power Rangers.

"We read you Zordon," Kim said as soon as they were in a quiet place.

"PUTTIES AND GOLDAR ARE ATTACKING THE PARK. YOU MUST TELEPORT THERE IMMEDIATELY."

After making sure no one was present, Kim said, "it's Morphin Time! Pterodactyl."

"Sabretooth Tiger!" Trini called.  
"Star Fire Power!" Ellie called.

They teleported to the park and found Billy, Jason, and Zack already there.

"Where's Tommy?" Kim asked as the girls joined the fight by attacking the putties. Jason was taking on Goldar.

"Don't know," Zack said, "we were at the Youth Center when Zordon called," he hit a putty in the Z on its chest and it disappeared.

Goldar kicked Jason in the chest before chuckling. "I wouldn't be worried about the Green Weakling," he said as he tried to take a swipe at Jason who just ducked. "You should be worrying about me."

"Does he ever shut up," Ellie asked as she gave the putty she had been fighting a quick kick. It went down and exploded. Soon the four teens had dispatched of the putties and soon Goldar was enlarged.

Ellie teleported up to the Command Center as she had yet to be given a zord. Zordon had said they didn't have any other ones at the moment. She found Tommy sitting on the console watching the fight.

"You okay," she asked.

"Yeah," Tommy said, "Zordon won't send me down unless I'm needed. The guys can handle Goldar," he said sounding crestfallen.

"TOMMY," Zordon said, "YOU NEED TO CONSERVE YOUR POWERS. YOUR POWERS ARE VERY LOW. ELLIE I WANTED TO COMMEND YOU ON YOUR FIGHTING ABILITY. IT HAS GREATLY IMPROVED SINCE YOU JOINED THE TEAM."

"Thanks Zordon," Ellie said blushing a little. She sometimes felt like she didn't deserve her spot on the team after she was under the spell but she really wanted to be of help as much as possible.

The fight with Goldar didn't last long and soon the other Rangers teleported back up to the Command Center.

"GOOD JOB RANGERS," Zordon said.

"The fight seemed illogical," Billy said.

"What do you mean?" Kim asked. "I mean we beat them without any problem right," Kim asked turning to Zordon.

"WHAT I THINK BILLY MEANS IS THAT USUALLY ZEDD'S PLAN IS MORE APPARENT. THE FIGHT TODAY DID SEEM RANDOM," Zordon agreed with Billy. "I WILL MONITOR ZEDD'S ACTIVITY AS MUCH AS I CAN. I WILL NOTIFY YOU IF THERE ARE MORE ATTACKS. YOU SHOULD ALL GO HOME AND REST."

Ellie looked at the item on her communicator. "I'm late! Gotta go." She said and teleported away without another word.

When she arrived home she found her sister Mary setting the table and Corinne heating up leftovers from the night before. "Sorry I'm late. I was shopping with Kim and Trini and lost track of time."

"Dinner isn't even finished yet," Corinne said. "Anything happen today?"

"Today? No just a boring day shopping. You know how it is." Ellie tried to hide the smile on her face. Her life hadn't been boring since she moved to Angel Grove. She didn't think she'd want it to ever change.

* * *

Notes: Action picks up next chapter. Just getting the readers reacquainted with the Jacobson's.


	2. Not Fitting In

"Are you going to try out for the basketball team," Monica Evers asked Ellie as they walked out of math class the next day.

"Huh?" Ellie asked as she scanned the hallway for her boyfriend.

"The basketball team," Monica repeated.

"Isn't school almost over?"

"I mean the summer basketball team. They travel all over. You're definitely tall enough to play basketball."

Ellie snorted. It wasn't the first time someone had asked her if she wanted to play basketball. At about six-foot-tall everyone just assumed she played basketball. "I don't know," she said as she walked to her locker. Jason wasn't there.

"You should totally think about it. It's fun and you'll meet more people that way. You could use better friends."

"Excuse me," she asked turning around to face Monica. "What's wrong with my friends?"

"Nothing but they're kinda stuck up. they only hang out with each other. They don't let anyone in their group. I'm shocked they allowed you in it."

"I started dating Jason," Ellie said with a shrug. She knew Monica was probably right. She wouldn't have normally fit into the group. If she hadn't met Jason or the fact that Zedd made her the Starfire Ranger, she would probably not have become friends with them.

"Well at least you have good taste in boyfriends." Monica said with a smile. "Seriously though Ellie. Think about joining the basketball team." The warning bell rang. "Oops gotta go," she said before hurrying away.

Ellie opened her locker and grabbed her biology book before shutting her locker. Basketball. She wasn't completely sure that it was her thing. As she headed towards her class she ran literally into someone. It was her lab partner Mariah Nelson. Mariah was one of the few freshmen in the class.

"Sorry!" the girl said as she quickly grabbed her books that she had dropped. "I wasn't paying attention," she said.

"It's okay," she said as she helped pick up the books. "I wasn't paying much attention either." She opened the door.

"Thanks," she said as she walked in before her. They headed to their desks. She saw Jason and Zack, who were also in the class weren't there yet. She thought it was strange as she hadn't seen either of them that day. Tommy was sitting at his desk a couple rows over working on the lab sheet that was due that day.

Mr. Miller came into the room and started writing the lab assignment on the chalkboard. Ellie grabbed a pencil and started writing it down. Jason and Zack were very late she decided.

As they started setting up the experiment, Ellie took out another piece of paper and wrote a quick note that read:

Hey have you seen Zack and Jason today?

-E

She handed the paper to Mariah and asked her to pass it on to Tommy. A few moments later the note came back.

Haven't seen them since second period

-T

It was fourth period. She knew that Zack occasionally skipped a class here and there but Jason hadn't since she moved there.

"Miss Jacobson," Mr. Miller said getting her attention. "Please don't make Miss Nelson do the whole lab."

Ellie blushed and quickly started helping Mariah with her lab. She didn't know Mariah very well. She was only a freshman but from what she could tell, she preferred not to stand out.

When the bell rang Ellie gathered her books and headed for the door. It was lunch time and she wanted to find out where Jason was.

She headed to her locker and saw that Jason wasn't there which wasn't completely odd since he wasn't in class. She headed to the cafeteria and got a salad before sitting down at their usual table. She was very surprised when only Tommy joined them.

"Something's up," Ellie said in a quiet voice.

"I agree," Tommy said as he stood up. "We should contact Zordon," he said and led them outside of the cafeteria. They found an empty classroom and stepped inside. "Zordon," Tommy said, "the others aren't in school. Is there a monster fight?"

"YES. TELEPORT UP TO THE COMMAND CENTER IMMEDIATELY."

They double checked no one was around before teleporting up to the Command Center. They found the alarms going off.

"What's going on Zordon and why weren't we called?" Tommy asked.

"ZEDD SENT DOWN A MONSTER A LITTLE WHILE AGO AND I DIDN'T WANT TO CALL EITHER OF YOU UP UNLESS IT WAS NECESSARY. I WAS ABOUT TO CONTACT YOU AS THE FIGHT HAS TAKEN A TURN FOR THE WORSE. LOOK AT THE VIEWING GLOBE."

They found a monster standing over the other Rangers who were all down and unmoving.

"What happened," Ellie asked.

'ZEDD SENT DOWN THE HORNETRON. HE ATTACKED THE RANGERS AND STUNG THEM. YOU MUST GO DOWN THERE AND DISTRACT THE MONSTER SO THAT WE CAN TELEPORT THEM UP HERE. YOU MUST BE VERY CAREFUL THAT YOU ARE NOT STUNG AS WELL."

"We will," Tommy said before getting into position. "It's morphin time!"

"Dragonzord!" Tommy called.

"Starfire Power!" Ellie called.

They were teleported down. They were quickly surrounded by putties. Ellie tried to fight the putties as Tommy tried to take on the big hornet. They weren't having much luck but Tommy was able to distract the monster enough for the others to be teleported up to the Command Center.

Ellie was completely surrounded by putties and really hoped that the others would be back up and moving soon because she knew Tommy couldn't fight the monster alone.

"Well, well Orange Ranger," the monster said as it knocked Tommy to the ground and faced Ellie. "It's time for you to meet the same fate as your teammates."

"I don't think so," Ellie said launching herself at the hornet. She didn't' last long as she was knocked to the ground.

"Watch out!" she heard someone yell. Before she knew what was happening, she was hit with something that made pain go through her body and she fell to the ground unmoving.

"Zordon," Jason, who along with the others had just returned, said into his communicator. "Teleport Ellie up."

Ellie was gone in a flash of orange light. Zack and Billy were helping Tommy back up to his feet. Billy had Tommy sent back up as well.

DDD

In the Command Center Alpha had just finished administering the antidote to Ellie. Tommy was leaning heavily against the console feeling exhausted after the fight. He didn't want to admit it but he felt his powers weaken even more during the fight.

Ellie sat down next to him on the console. "That hurt." She said rubbing her arm that was still stinging. "I'm okay Zordon," she said. "Teleport me back down."

As soon as she said that the monster enlarged. "Figures," she said with a sigh. "I really wish I had a Zord."

"I'M STILL TRYING TO FIND ONE FOR YOU," Zordon answered. "UNTIL THEN, YOU WILL NEED TO COME TO THE COMMAND CENTER WHEN THE MONSTER IS ENLARGED."

The fight didn't last long as the monster was destroyed. The other Rangers teleported back up to the Command Center for a debriefing.

Ellie looked at her watch. She felt left out of the conversation and teleported back to school as lunch just ended. She wondered if she'd ever not feel like she was the third wheel on the team.

DDD

Notes: Mariah is a minor character this fic but she'll have a major role next fic. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

"


End file.
